South Korea’s Moon says cannot recognize North Korea as nuclear state

South Korea will never tolerate North Korea as a nuclear state, nor will Seoul have nuclear weapons, President Moon Jae-in said on Wednesday, as China pledged to work on denuclearisation after setting aside a dispute with Seoul over an anti-missile system.

The North Korea nuclear crisis will take center stage when U.S. President Donald Trump begins a trip to Asia at the end of the week and diplomacy has being ramping up ahead of that visit.

A series of weapons tests by Pyongyang and a string of increasingly bellicose exchanges between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in recent months has raised fears about an armed conflict.